


A Quiet Winter's Night

by junko



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 04:22:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16987962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: Naynko-sensei has come home drunk again. Will the empty sake bottle he left behind cause Natsume a world of trouble?





	A Quiet Winter's Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kornevable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kornevable/gifts).



Outside Natsume Takashi’s window, snow fell in thick flakes. 

In the corner of Natsume’s darkened room, near the space heater, Nyanko-sensei snored in his sleep. He lay sprawled on his back, his rotund tummy in the air, completely passed out, an empty sake bottle nearby. 

Natsume sighed. Clearly, sensei had had another late night, partying with the local yokai population. 

Natsume really wished sensei wouldn’t bring his alcohol home with him. Natsume was going to have to sneak yet another empty sake bottle into the neighbor’s recycling bin without either of the Fujiwaras catching him. They were both light sleepers, and gods only know what they’d think to see him holding an empty sake bottle. No, Natsume had a pretty good idea what _anyone_ would think finding a teenage boy sneaking around at night with an empty bottle of alcohol. Touko-san, in particular, would worry that he was hiding evidence of some kind of drinking problem--which he was! It was just Nyanko-sensei’s, not his.

No one would believe him if he told them that his “cat” was the drunk. Not even the Fujiwaras.

Natsume knew he should get up and take care of the bottle now, while everyone was asleep. He got as far as sticking his toe out. Feeling the chill made Natsume pull his foot back under the covers with a hiss. It could wait for five minutes, couldn’t it? It was warm under the covers and the house was silent in a homey-way, particularly with the storybook-sized, fluffy snowflakes drifting down outside. 

Next thing he knew, Natsume was waking up to Touko-san’s frantic reminder that if he slept any longer, he’d be late for school.

Natsume got dressed in a hurry. As he stomped into his school uniform pants, he accidentally kicked the bottle across the room, where it rolled, noisily, under his desk. Natsume cringed, worried that Touko-san might have heard that distinctive sound, but, luckily, she was still anxiously calling to him. 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Natsume called out, “Sorry! I’m coming! I’m coming! Just a second!” 

He grabbed a pair of socks out of the dresser and quickly fished the bottle out from under his desk. 

With a heave, he pried open his window, thinking maybe he’d just fling it in the direction of the neighbor’s garbage and hope for the best. 

Wouldn’t you know it, there was Shigeru-san, out shoveling the sidewalk. Shigeru-san glanced up at the sound of the window being opened and Natsume had to quickly hide the bottle behind his back. Shigeru-san gave Natsume a long, curious look, but, being used to Natsume’s oddities, he eventually just smiled and waved. 

Having no better response, Natsume waved back. 

And then awkwardly heaved the window closed one-handed, his other still desperately hiding the bottle. All the while, Shigeru-san watched with a curious smile.

Natsume yanked the curtain closed.

He’d have thrown the bottle at sensei’s head, but, the way his morning was going, Natsume didn’t trust it not to miss sensei entirely and knock over a bookcase or something. Toeing Nyanko-sensei in the ribs, Natsume set the bottle down beside his head. “Sensei! Take care of your own garbage! I have to go! I’m already late.”

“Yeah, yeah,” was all Natsume heard on his mad dash out the door.

#

Natsume didn’t normally think of himself as a worrier, but he found his mind returning to the problem of the empty bottle several times during the day. What if Nyanko-sensei forgot about it? Was today laundry day? Was there any reason that Touko-san would go into Natsume’s room and find the bottle lying there?

He wasn’t sure why he was so fixated on it _this_ time. 

It wasn’t like this was the first bottle Natsume had had to sneak out of the house or that he’d come home to discover in some corner of his room.

Maybe it was because just the other day, Taki had been gossiping about one of their classmates who’d been caught trying to buy a six-pack of beer from the local liquor store with fake ID. Natsume hadn’t paid the story much mind until Taki mentioned how the kid’s parents had made a big deal out of making an apology, and suddenly Natsume had flashbacks to when people had had to apologize on his behalf. 

A feeling of unease had seeped into his bones, nudging at private places he normally kept closed off and hidden.

What if the Fujiwara’s found the bottle and that led to an all too familiar scene, one Natsume had been through dozens of times: they would be waiting for him in a kitchen. Shigeru-san would have a concerned look. Touko-san might even be crying. Then the dreaded words: “We need to _talk_.”

And he’d be cornered, once again, between a lie and a bigger lie. 

_“The bottle is Nyanko-sensei’s. Yes, really, the ‘cat’ dragged it in,”_ would never, ever fly. 

Either he’d have to admit to something he didn’t do, or he’d have to sit there in stony silence and be labeled ‘uncooperative’ and ‘stubborn.’

Then what?

Would this be the thing that the Fujiwara’s would decide was the last straw?

Was there anywhere left for him to go?

Kitamono and Nishimura poked Natsume in the shoulder. “Are you going to sit there all day?” Nishimura asked. Kitamono added, “The bell rang, dude. Wanna go to the arcade?”

“Um, sure.”

Kitamono and Nishimura exchanged looks. They’d been expecting another excuse or brush off. 

“Cool!” Nishimura said happily. 

Natsume wished he could share their enthusiasm, but he feared he was just delaying the inevitable.

#

The snow had continued to fall all day. The ground was blanketed. The world seemed outlined in thick bands of white that clung to dark, bare tree branches like thick frosting. As they walked to the town center, snow crunched under their shoes. 

Nishimura and Kitamono forged ahead, talking about everything and nothing, all at once.

Natsume trailed slightly behind, as usual, happy to be caught up in the wake of their normalcy. 

He’d miss this.

Maybe the Fujiwara’s wouldn’t banish him immediately. They seemed more like the sort to send him to therapy or into a sobriety program, didn’t they? 

Natsume had had other foster homes threaten ‘therapy,’ but, the truth was, it had always been easier just to send him packing, let him be someone else’s problem. No one had had enough interest in actually keeping him around to follow-up on anything like that.

The Fujiwara’s might.

That just seemed like a recipe for serious disaster. Natsume should be able to satisfy anyone that he was not an alcoholic, since he wasn’t, but all it would take would be for one yokai to interrupt a meeting or therapy session. If someone with the authority to put him on antipsychotic drugs or send him to a mental hospital saw him talking to “nothing”.... 

He shook his head to banish the thought. It didn’t bear thinking about.

As they passed along a tall retaining wall, Nyanko-sensei jumped out of the underbrush and landed, heavily, on Natsume’s shoulder, almost knocking him over. 

“Hello, hello!” he sung out in his funny little old man voice, which was nothing at all like the deep, resonate tone of his True Voice. Somewhere, sensei’d gotten a hold of a steamed fish and half of it hung from his mouth. 

Gods, when he didn’t stink of sake, there was some kind of fish on his breath. “Did you take care of the bottle like I asked?”

“Buy me scallops from that food truck!” Nyanko-sensei pointed to a food truck that could be seen at the end of the road. It seemed to specialize in fried seafood and, no doubt, was where sensei had stolen the fish from.

“That’s not an answer to my question!”

“Are you talking to your cat again, Natsume?” Nishimura asked.

“How does that cat always know where you are?” Kitamono wondered. Luckily, as usual, he answered his own question. “You must be especially bonded, huh?”

Natsume smiled and nodded. “He just as a second sense, I guess.”

“Scallops!” Nyanko-sensei shouted, jumping off Natsume’s shoulder and somehow deftly evading capture, despite his girth. He scampered towards the food truck, shouting, “Scallops! Scallops!”

“Any chance you guys are hungry?” Natsume asked, with an embarrassed tug on his ear. 

“Sure, why not?” they said in unison, laughing as they watched Nyanko-sensei’s antics. He was dancing in front of the food truck, bouncing up and down, like he couldn’t quite heave himself up to the order counter--which of course was all a ruse. If he transformed, he could have picked up the whole truck in his jaws and carried it out to sea.

#

In a minute, they were all huddled under a nearby shop’s awning cradling small bowls of miso-glazed, pan-seared scallops over soba noodles. For an extra 500 yen, the vendor was willing to give them a container of extra scallops for sensei. 

The food steamed in the cold air. 

Natsume held the bowl to his face and took a deep breath of the smells--seafood and miso, such a homey scent that felt like exactly what was wanted on a cold, December day. The sun was bright, despite the chill, and the light glinted on all the snow-draped surfaces. The little market, normally so busy, was hushed. It felt like the whole world was just the four of them, and the mouse-sized acorn-shaped yokai dashing through the gutters, tossing tiny snowballs at each other. 

Natsume laughed to see them.

Nishimura and Kitamono stopped their chatter to give Natsume a curious look. But, just then Nyanko-sensei spotted the little yokai and pounced. Luckily, the little mice-sized yokai were quick and clever and sensei too full to do any kind of real damage. The small yokai tossed snowballs at sensei, who shook them off and got more serious about his chase. Natsume had no idea what it looked like to his friends, but soon everyone was laughing at the sight of sensei getting angrier and angrier at the slippery little creatures.

“I’m gonna have you for dinner, you pipsqueaks!” Sensei shouted.

“Got to catch us first, fatty!” they taunted.

“You have the best cat,” Nishimura said. 

“Nyanko-sensei is definitely… unique,” Natsume agreed. 

“I heard that!”

The little yokai took advantage of Nyanko-sensei’s distraction and barraged him with tiny snowballs, several of which got him square on the nose. 

Natsume chuckled again.

They finished up their noodles and made their way to the arcade. Natsume had never actually been to the arcade, despite numerous invitations. He wasn’t sure what he should _do_ now that he was here. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the lights and the noises, but Nishimura and Kitamono dragged him from machine to machine, showing off favorites, and even getting him to try a game or two. Of course, he was terrible at it, but they didn’t seem to mind. 

All too soon, they were back out into the snow-covered streets and headed… home.

Would this be Natsume’s home for much longer?

When he waved good-bye to Nishimura and Kitamono at the usual crossroads, Nyanko-sensei trotted up from some other direction, his feet making little paw prints in the snow. 

“I can’t believe you expect me to clean your room on top of everything else I do for you,” Nyanko-sensei grumbled once they were alone. “You should treat your bodyguard better.”

The relief that washed over Natsume was so profound, he actually had to stop for a moment and grasp the trunk of a tree. 

“You took care of it?”

“Of course,” sensei said with a harumph. “What kind of person do you think I am?”

Normally, Natsume would counter with a quick ‘a drunken slob,’ but he was far too grateful. “Thank you, sensei.”

“You owe me more of those scallops. Those little tiny bastards ate what was left of my share!”

Natsume reached down and scooped up Nyanko-sensei and gave him a huge hug. “I will buy you all the scallops you can eat!”

“Hmph, I think you underestimate my ability to eat.”

Natsume didn’t care how much it would cost him. He hummed a happy tune under his breath the whole way home.

#

“Tadaima!” Natsume called out as he slipped off his shoes in the entryway.

“Okaeri, Takashi!” Touko-san replied from the kitchen. 

Shigeru-san came in just behind Natsume. He stomped the snow off his boots, as he said, “You’re right, Touko. You should see the pile of sake bottles that man has in his recycling! And to think he tried to blame us!”

Touko-san came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. “Oh, I know. The wife was over here with some crazy tale that our cat was dumping bottles into her bin.” She covered her mouth, as though horrified by what she was about to say about someone else, and lowered her voice. “Our Nyankichi-kun? One wonders how much _she_ imbibes, as well.” 

Shigeru-san glanced down at Nyanko-sensei who was licking the snow out from between his toes. “Yet, I don’t know why, but Nyangoro seems like the type, doesn’t he, Takashi?”

“Definitely,” Natsume agreed. 

“I hope you don’t mind,” Touko-san broke in timidly, “But they were having a sale at the market, so I’m making yuzu scallops for dinner.”

Nyanko-sensei perked up. “Scallops?”

“Sounds amazing,” Natsume agreed, though he was already thinking about slipping most of his scallops to sensei.

#

Natsume found himself lingering at the dinner table, listening to the Fujiwaras talking about their day. The scallops, it turned out, were amazingly delicious and Touko-san had planned a plate just for Nyanko-sensei, so Natsume hadn’t had to give up any of his own. 

It occurred to Natsume that he had no real idea what Shigeru-san did for a living, from the sounds of things, it was some kind of office work. 

Maybe… if he was staying, he should try to figure it out?

Nyanko-sensei let out a big belch and announced, “I’m headed to bed.”

“Goodnight,” Natsume said, unthinkingly. 

“Oh, are you headed upstairs already?” Shigeru-san asked, sounding a little disappointed. 

Touko-san gave him one of her patented looks, this one clearly said, ‘let the boy have his space.’ 

“I mean, of course, feel free. I’m sure you have homework or… other things to do,” Shigeru-san said quickly. “I was just thinking that with this big snow, it might be fun to make a little fire out back and roast a few ginkgo nuts or something?”

Nyanko-sensei paused in his resolute march upstairs. “Roasted ginkgo nuts?”

“I’ll get them soaking,” Touko-san was already getting up and hunting through the cabinets.

“Shall we build a fire?” Shigeru-san smiled. But, in that generous way he had, he added, “Or, you can always come down when they’re ready.”

Natsume was touched, as always, by the patient kindness of these people. “I’ll help you build a fire.”

#

They also had to pull out the fire pit from the shed where it had been stored, but, with a minimum amount of effort, they got it put together. It was little more than a metal bowl that sat on a stand of legs, but Shigeru-san found a grate for it, as well. 

He handed Natsume some kindling from a pile in the shed. “Have you ever done this before?”

Natsume shook his head. Probably he should have at some point. One of the various families that he’d stayed with over the years liked to go camping, but he never stayed long enough with them to have gone. It turned out they tended to bring back stray yokai from the woods. That house had been particularly fraught with monsters in the shadows.

As Shigeru-san was showing him how to build up the kindling, the neighbor stuck his head out of his window and peered at them over the fence. “Oi, I’ve seen that one sneaking bottles into our recycling too!”

Natsume’s heart froze. He’d been so careful! Had the neighbor spotted him after all?

Shigeru-san gave Natsume a wink before he turned to face the neighbor. “I thought you told my wife it was the cat.”

“The cat too! They’re both drunks, the both of them.”

Shigeru-san just laughed. “I won’t allow you to say such things about Takashi. We trust him implicitly,” he said without raising his voice. “The cat? Well, Nyangoro is… well, I’m afraid you may be right. He’s of dubious moral fiber. I’ve already told you that I’ll pay your garbage fees for the month. Please excuse our drunken cat.”

“Fine, fine,” the neighbor grumbled, slamming the window shut.

Paying the fees? Was that okay? Natsume’s heart hammered against his chest. He was causing trouble. This wasn’t good. But, what could he say? “Nyanko-sensei is my responsibility. I should pay.”

Shigeru-san gave Natsume a long look, then he let out a breath. “If you want to do some extra chores, I’m sure Touko wouldn’t mind the help. But, Takashi, you know that I’m just placating a crazy, old man who loses track of how many sake bottles he consumes and wants someone else to blame.” 

Natsume let out a breath. “Right.”

Shigeru-san pulled out a match and held it to the crumpled up bit of newspaper that they’d placed in the center of the pile of kindling. It burst into flame dramatically, lighting up the small back yard. The heat could be felt immediately. 

They stood and admired their work for a while. After a few minutes, Shigeru-san carefully balanced a heavier log onto the fire. The wood hissed and popped.

“Mmm, nothing like a fire on a cold, winter night,” Shigeru-san mused.

Natsume agreed with a nod.

They stood like this, warming their hands by the fire for a long time, saying nothing, just enjoying the crackling of the fire and the stillness of the night. The sky was dark enough that stars could be seen.

At some point, Nyanko-sensei perched himself on the slanted, snow-covered roof behind them. His tail curled around his body.

Shigeru-san looked at sensei for several beats and then said to him, “Your drinking will get Natsume in trouble one of these days.”

Natsume sucked in a startled breath. Did Shigeru-san know the truth about sensei?

“I will be careful in the future,” Nyanko-sensei said, sounding like his True Self, just then. His eyes locked with Shigeru’s and he harrumphed. “I’ll be sure to use other people’s recycling and not just the neighbors’.”

It was unclear if Shigeru-san heard him. However, he said, “I’m glad we had this talk.” Shigeru-san gave Natsume another wink. “I sure told him, didn’t I?”

Natsume had no idea what to say to that. 

Shigeru-san laughed at himself. “Listen to me, treating you like a kid who believes in fairies and talking animals.”

Oh. It had been some kind of pretend game? 

“Still,” Shigeru-san said, glancing over his shoulder and up at Nyanko-sensei, “I’d believe it of that one. There’s something special about Nyangoro, isn’t there?”

That was the second time Shigeru-san had said something like that. Natsume wanted to say something, acknowledge the truth of it in some way, but Touko-san came out with a tray of ginkgo nuts, ready for roasting. 

They pulled out some summer lawn chairs and set them close to the fire. Touko-san brought out extra blankets and Natsume helped her hand out hot cocoa. Touko and Shigeru fussed about, roasting the nuts, chatting good-naturedly with each other.

Natsume snuggled in deeply and sipped his cocoa.

Soon, attracted to the light and activity, several of the local yokai peered over the fence. At Natsume’s nod they pulled themselves up to sit on fence posts. The Chuukyuu showed up and the big-headed Chobihige joined in as well. Everyone kept a respectful distance from the Fujiwaras, but they talked among themselves about the goings-on in the nearby forest.

The smell of roasting nuts filled the air.

Natsume’s cheeks stung from the cold air, but he didn’t want to go inside. 

In fact, he never wanted to leave.

It was a new feeling for him… no, not really. He’d just been too afraid to feel this attached before. He wasn’t even sure he should dare to now.

After handing him a paper bag filled with gingko nuts, Natsume watched as Touko-san set a bag near where several of the yokai were sitting. Seeing him watching her, she smiled bashfully. “We should leave some for the spirits, don’t you think?”

Shigeru-san nodded. “It’s never a bad idea. Don’t you agree, Takashi?”

His mouth was hanging open, but he remembered to say, “Um, yes.”

Shigeru-san seemed to be looking straight through him when he added, “The world is a more magical place than we can ever fathom.”

“Yes,” Natsume said, his heart filling with a strange sort of warmth, a feeling of acceptance. He looked around at the yokai who were greedily helping themselves and where Nyanko-sensei sat, munching on his own bag of gingko nuts. Finally, his gaze returned to the Fujiwaras and he let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and said, “It really is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for asking for a fic involving the Fujiwara's relationship with Natsume (and the yokai.) 
> 
> Having never written in _Natsume Yuujinchou_ before, I struggled a little bit with what Natsume would call them in his head. For a while, I had this written with them as Mr. and Mrs. Fujiwara, partly because Natsume so clearly tries to keep them at a "safe" arm's distance, but that was clunky. Since he will refer to Mr. Fujiwara as "Shigeru-san" out loud, I decided that, despite the awkward of the honorific in the internal dialogue, that almost-closeness felt more Natsume. I hope it reads okay to your sense of him.
> 
> I obviously made up a neighbor. But, hopefully everything else is canon enough.
> 
> Happy Yule! I hope this fits the bill for you! Regardless, it was lovely to get to write in this universe. I haven't finished the entire series yet, so you can imagine this happening some time in season 3, if you'd like.


End file.
